So, how serious is the legal battle between Apple and the various Android phone makers, really? Surely, it's just logical business sense that's behind it, right? Calculated, well-planned precision strikes designed to hurt Android where simply making better, more innovative products isn't enough? Well, no, not really. We already knew Steve Jobs took this personal - now we know just how personal.

Apple Newton, a device which had been under development at Apple since the end of the 80's and was released in 1993.

"Besides a mobile phone, the major applications were a calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, note pad, e-mail, and games. It had no physical buttons to dial with. Instead customers used a touchscreen to select phone numbers with a finger".

It was under development since the end of the 80's and was released in 1993 [Associated Press: "Keep it simple, Simon says", Florida Times-Union newspaper, November 3, 1993].

Everybody can come up with features and implement them in a certain manner using the technology available in a certain period of time. But what really matters is how you turn those features into something that gets the whole story right and you end up with an actually usable and sellable product.

A lot of people don't seem to be getting this and take these things for granted once they are out in the consumer space. They don't realize that it actually takes a lot of effort to come up with these things in the first place and make it so it actually works well enough for the consumer.

The tech industry is a very volative space. Over the years, I've seen a lot of innovative companies go under because other, often bigger ones jumped on the bandwagon and released me-too products because they wanted a piece of the pie these companies created. I'm not referring to Apple specifically, although they've more than had their share of financial problems because of it. NetScape, SGI, Software Arts, ... are just a few examples of innovative companies who changed what people can do with technology over the years. These companies are no longer around, mainly due to the fact because others stepped in and ran away with the technology they pioneered.

Historically, this hasn't turned out very well for the consumer. IE dominance was one of the main reasons NetScape tanked, and when it did internet technology entered a dark age as innovation ceased.

Love Android all you want, but you can't deny that its the iPhone who set the bar and defined the market Android is going after. And I'm not saying that out of fanboyism. I'ms saying this as a technology enthousiast who likes polished, usable products. Look at the smartphone landscape before it came out. It was labeled as a "mature market" catering primarily to a certain niche. The iPhone changed all that. It put the bar higher for technology and what you could do with it, and lowered the bar for consumers.

So I'm not mad when a company which actually does the innovation behind it to make good ideas into a reality tries to fight me-too products with all they've got. Neither would I be mad if a company like VMWare decided to go after me-too companies that think the best way of doing business is mimicking the whole widget of another company. Because its when these guys succesfully enter the market, that innovative products become commoditized and its the consumer who ultimately pays the price.